Male figure
20th century
Object PlacePapuan Gulf, Papua New Guinea
Medium/TechniqueWood, pigments, seeds, shells, and feathers
DimensionsOverall: 289.6 cm (114 in.)
Credit LineBequest of William E. Teel
Accession number2014.226
On View
Not on viewClassificationsSculpture
Collections
Provenance1980, purchased at auction in Melbourne, Australia by John Edelen [see note]. September, 1992, sold by Kevin Conru (dealer), London to William and Bertha Teel, Marblehead, MA; 2014, bequest of William Teel to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 26, 2014)
NOTE: Christraud M. Geary, ed., From the South Seas: Oceanic Art in the Teel Collection (Boston: MFA, 2006), p. 86, cat. no. 37, where the object is attributed to Kebali of Kini, an artist active in the 1970s, and it is suggested the figure was made for the market. According to information in Mr. Teel's notes, however, the figure was acquired in Papua New Guinea in 1948 by a Mr. Wright of Maples Furniture Store, Melbourne and stored in a Maples Furniture warehouse; then in the late 1970s, it was purchased by an unknown collector who sold it in Chicago to Kevin Conru.
NOTE: Christraud M. Geary, ed., From the South Seas: Oceanic Art in the Teel Collection (Boston: MFA, 2006), p. 86, cat. no. 37, where the object is attributed to Kebali of Kini, an artist active in the 1970s, and it is suggested the figure was made for the market. According to information in Mr. Teel's notes, however, the figure was acquired in Papua New Guinea in 1948 by a Mr. Wright of Maples Furniture Store, Melbourne and stored in a Maples Furniture warehouse; then in the late 1970s, it was purchased by an unknown collector who sold it in Chicago to Kevin Conru.
mid to late 20th century
19th century
19th century
late 19th century
20th century
late 19th century
mid 18th–19th century